New voter registration to start Tuesday, June 30?

The date for the start of the compilation of the controversial new voter register could be Tuesday, June 30, 2020.

A letter sighted by 3news.com and signed by Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) in charge of Corporate Affairs Dr Eric Bossman Asare to some political parties puts the date for the commencement of the exercise as such.

The EC in all its official communications has said the exercise will start in the last week of June and end in the last week of July.

Already, a pilot registration has been conducted nationwide in preparation for the civic exercise, which has divided major political parties in Ghana.

On Tuesday, June 9, the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament recommended for adoption the constitutional instrument (CI) that will guide the upcoming exercise, CI 126.

The controversy has surrounded the basic required documents to prove the citizenship of eligible voters.

While the EC claims the Ghanaian passport or a Ghana Card or even two guarantors is what is needed to register, some major stakeholders, notably the National Democratic Congress (NDC), are calling for the inclusion of the existing voter ID cards as well as driver’s license or birth certificates for registration.

According to these dissenting groups, the EC would disenfranchise many Ghanaians if it does away with the existing register.

The Committee stated in the plenary that the issue on the mandatory documents for registration did not get consensus during sitting.

But Chairman Dominic Akuritinga Ayine said EC’s Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, assured his Committee that enough voter registration guarantee forms would be made available at each centre for other registered voters to guarantee for those who may not have a passport nor a Ghana card.

Notwithstanding, the NDC has taken the EC to the Supreme Court over the matter.